On the other side of the mirror
by Aya Rose
Summary: Stella simply can't stand her father for remarrying during her first year at Alfea. So she begins to focus on the other side of her heritage. WitchyAU
1. 1e1 Witches make interesting roomies

Author's note: I do not own anything in relation to Winx Club. In fact, I don't know what I'm doing in this category at all. Well, on the bright side I'm probably not going to finish this anyways, short attention span and everything.

As some of you feel the need to complain when you aren't warned before hand, I'll put this up front. If two girls kissing squicks you out, you do **not** want to read this or anything written by me. (If you don't know what 'squicked' means, you also shouldn't read anything written by me.) There's no doubt that if on Thursday, if I think Sky in a dress would be a massive improvement, it's going in, flames or not. This is no assurance that you **will** see two girls kissing, but I'd put money on it the way my brain works. Oh yeah, and a shit load of cussing. Stella swears like a sailor, and I'm pretty sure that's infective after a while. So if the abnormal sexuality doesn't get you, the swearing might.

As to the creation idea behind this, it's a simple chain of logic that no one seemed to be jumping on. Stella has two parents, what if she took after her mother? What if people actually started pushing against that thin barrier between 'Witch' and 'Fairy' that Mirta seems to live on? What keeps Bloom's infinite 'Fairy' magic from being other flavors of magic?

Any way, it's all theory craft. And not done. I release it only in the hopes that others begin to think in new directions.

-o0o-

"... I was trying to get to Cloud Tower in the realm of Magix when I was attacked by those creatures..."

"... A witch doesn't need to know how, she just does it... "

"... Strong feelings, such as fear, have summoned up the strong powers that are within you. It was always there, you just didn't know it... "

"... You should come with me to Cloud Tower. A new session is about to start, and you could learn to control your powers. And I'm sure you'd make an excellent witch... "

-o0o-

Dear Mom & Dad,

I actually have a coven now!

Okay, so that makes no sense completely out of the blue like that, but that's what happened. I told you about my classes already, so I'm sure you'd find that pretty boring a second or third time, not that you probably didn't find it boring the first time, but at least I think my classes are really interesting. But I suppose I should go into my new sisters anyways. The background information isn't that important, I'm sure you don't want to know about the magical significance of threes, fives, and other shape based numbers anyways. But witches, while not really overly trusting of anyone, including each other, do form sympathetic covens, so that we can grow stronger, and we find people who become our coven-sisters that we work well with.

You've already met Stella, she's the blond girl that was the center of all that trouble a few months back when I found out about all the witch stuff. She's very good at alchemy, if a little bit clumsy with her ingredients, which actually got her expelled from the fairy school last year. (Fairies are magical like Witches, they're just bratty, uneducated, and spoiled. Not unlike Mitzi!) She apparently learned most of it (the Alchemy anyways) from her mother who is a witch of the moon (Moon Witches tend to be rather unstable mentally and prone to severe mood swings). The staff she has is apparently the only object she has kept of her father's, who she seems to hate. In colorful and explicit detail at times. What ever he did must have been horrible, because she seems to blame him for everything wrong in her life. I can't quite count the number of times we've found her cursing under her breath about him. Though truthfully I'm a little afraid of asking her just what he did, I'm sure she'll explain it when she's ready. That's what sisters are for.

Though you haven't met Mirta yet, she really is a sweet girl. Mirta was pulled in to our group by Stella because she simply can't stand crying girls, so we ended up dragging her off shopping of all things. Mirta's magical specialty is emotions, which would be really strong and useful, if most witches didn't completely despise showing emotions of any sort. Stella likes to point out Mirta's 'Girl-Crush' on her childhood friend, but that's probably because Stella has no capacity to stop things from going directly from her brain to her mouth. Mirta does cry a bit, but that's probably because she's directly in touch with her own emotions and everyone else's, so she seems a bit overemotional in relation to all the repressed girls normally in the tower.

So long story short, we're pretty much ostracized from the witch collective. Stella with her screaming exuberance and fairy background and training, Mirta with her emotional openness, and myself with the optimism and curse breaking. We were all keeping up in classes, and we could count on each other for support when we got overwhelmed, but it was socially extremely hard to keep going on individually.

Then Ms. Griffin (Remember her? Green skin, purple hair. She showed up at the house to get all the paper work in line?), pulled us out of class to inform us that we were being reassigned to the same room and were to begin special training as a coven under her. The training isn't really hard at all, it's really just synchronization practice using things we already know. It's kind of tricky when Stella's magic is kind of erratic, and mine is pushy and impatient, and Mirta's magic is-

Sorry to cut the letter short. Stuffs blowing up. More later. Kiko sends love too.

- Love, Bloom.

-o0o-

"...and that's why I can't see how any problem can't be solved with a massive shopping trip." Stella states bluntly, gesturing wildly around the loft as she paces the carpeted floor, the smaller red head following a few steps behind, her right eye twitching as she tries to stay calm while reflexively picking up the waves of anger coming off of the blond.

"You can't just ignore obligations like that Stella. I mean, I'm sure your sister..."

"Stepsister."

"Stepsister. I'm sure she really does want you to show up at her Princess Ball"

At this point Bloom felt the need to raise her hand, her legs curled up under her on her bed, folding her letter before set it aside. "Excuse me... What's a Princess Ball?"

"Rich bitches who marry into royal families dump a bunch of money to parade their children around to show off how cool the fucking family they married into is." Stella spits out, picking up a pillow for the sole purpose of throwing it at the wall as hard as she can.

So instead of just accepting that answer, Bloom turns her head and asking the other girl, "Mirta?"

"It's where they... Present people as official royalty. The letter came in this afternoon, Stella's been plotting ways to be busy during it since." Mirta was used to being the translator for Bloom. The girl did grow up in a non-magical dimension, and she needed a lot of simpler things explained to her.

"Everything is happier when shopping. Or maybe drunk. Drunk could be nice. Possibly drinking and shopping." Stella keeps grumbling, even if she doesn't have everyone's attention, she still wants to stand out. Even a little.

"Why don't we just crash the thing?" Bloom asks. They crashed parties before. One more this month couldn't hurt. As long as they got their transmogrification homework in on time Griffin really wouldn't care what they did in their free time.

Mirta waves the offending letter as a reply. "No need to crash, we have the invitation, engraved even. We can just walk in, no questions asked, no bouncers to befuddle."

Stella mutters under her breath... Damn her father, damn his new wife, damn the court...

"What was that?" Bloom tilts her head back toward the blond, muttering and insane Stella was a little more approachable then insane ranting Stella. Not really all that much, but a little. Not that most other people really had the choice.

Stella sighs, tilting her head back to study the ceiling, "I am still technically the Princess first in line... Witch or not, I guess I am required to show up. Upstart or not."

Bloom nodded in agreement, and getting out of the tower for the night would be nice. Even though it was starting to feel like home now. "So then, a standard party crashing, or should we mix it up and try being civil."

"Does civil include Stella not hitting on anything with two legs?" Mirta giggled in response. Not that it wasn't a serious question.

Stella's head doesn't even stop tilting backward as she states, "I hit on that guy in the wheelchair just last week thank you very much."

Bloom nods in agreement. "So noted. They don't need two legs. I think civil works. But probably does include Stella hitting on anything with a pulse, yes."

"I only hit on the hot guys."

"And the cute guys." Mirta adds.

"Yes, them too."

"And the hot girls," Bloom tosses out.

"Well, yeah, of course. They're hot."

"And the cute girls." At this point Mirta and Bloom are almost speaking in one voice. It would be creepy, if they didn't live in a castle that had a heartbeat, and took care of some of the most evil teenage girls in multiple realities.

"True..."

"And people who buy you drinks."

"Only that one... Okay those three times. But I was really pretty drunk by that point."

"You were thirty seconds away from making out with Stormy."

"She's hot though! And argumentatively cute, which really does put her on two out of four of the pro lists..."

"Okay Stella, that's enough."

"I mean, with that puffy hair her face is just so completely lickable."

"Stella, you can stop now."

"It's practically begging grab big handfuls of it while pulling her face into..."

"TMI! TMI!" Bloom stuffs her head into a pillow, while Mirta holds her hands over her ears humming loudly. The sight does finally cause Stella to burst into laughter. Actual happy laughter, and not the megalomanical type the tower is used to hearing.

-o0o-

Ms. Griffin puts down her quill, looking out from her desk toward the lake at the center of their shared realm. It was most... unusual. In a single year finding a Laughing Witch, a Smiling Witch and a Crying Witch. More so that they synchronized so easily, especially when compared to other witches of their age.

Part of her was annoyed that she felt the need to ask for Faragonda's help in the training of not one, but an entire coven of her witches, but the Mirta girl reminded her way too much of 'Fari' when she was younger, and the specialized training could be useful in the long run...

She couldn't say that it didn't help that they weren't well liked by the students, though it was to their advantage that the heart of the tower did take an unusual liking to the triad.

Maybe the two schools could put together some sort of exchange program if the special studies worked.

Just maybe...

-o0o-

"She's a cute one, she could probably help you over your girl crush."

"Stella. One, that's a fairy. Two, I don't need help over a 'Girl Crush'. And Three, stop slipping Jack Daniels into your milkshakes, before I turn you into a ferret for your own good." Mirta had very few push button issues. One of those was her currently strained childhood friendship with Lucy. Stella liked to push buttons, it was really just her nature. This tended to result in the strangest arguments. Even in the city of Magix proper.

Stella pouts, "Fine, I'll just keep looking for a good replacement for you, and then I'll just push you two together. And rely on Bloom to keep slipping me some more of that Earth alcohol when you're not looking."

Bloom sighs dramatically, "You probably shouldn't plan out other people's lives for them Stella. Especially when they're within earshot."

"Why not? No one else seems to be very good at keeping up with their own lives... Ooh, I know, lets invite the Trix to the ball!"

Mirta tilts her head, sighing as she tries to keep herself from getting into yet another inevitable argument with her sister. "They'd probably just try to blow the whole thing up, wont they."

"I know, it'd be so cool!"

"Also, they kind of hate our guts. A lot?"

Stella sighs longingly, "True. But they're so much fun at parties."

Bloom interrupts the other witches, "Focus here. We need something both flashy enough for a Royal Ball, yet also screams 'Hi I'm a witch'. Possibly with a 'fuck you' attached at the end. Also it would be nice to avoid black for the night."

"Aww, but I like black, it's simple," says Mirta with a pout.

Stella turns her head staring at the younger girl, "You wear a pumpkin on your chest though."

"It's a jack-o-lantern."

"Mere Technicalities." Stella's head snaps sideways, staring straight at a group of three girls heading the opposite way down other side the street. "Hey, that fairy looks cute. You could ask her out Mirta."

"Stella..." Mirta half growls, half mutters threateningly.

"What? I'm just looking out for my homegirl. Anyways, I'm sure I saw her checking you out at least two different stores by now. The moon is the guide of transformations and love, and Stella, Daughter of the Moon is not going to steer you wrong."

Bloom looks slightly confused, asking, "Aren't you also Daughter of the Sun?"

"Yes, but the Sun can go fuck himself, preferably on the largest dildo in Solaria. Or possibly an Elephant-Bear. Which ever is larger and more uncomfortable. Either way he should be in unmentionable pain, preferably anally. Though I would accept oral, but only if he was making gagging noises on top of it."

"Stella, sometimes I think you're joking. But then you get that look in your eyes..."

-o0o-

Ms. Griffin had her back turned to the Beginner's Dark Magic course, as she guided the various colored chalks to write upon the large blackboard while she lectured. "Please note students. Older students and other witches will attempt to tell you that they do not have Grimoires. This is a lie. They are telling you this because they do not want you to get stronger. While you are weak, they can use you, and to avoid this, you must understand your powers. To truly understand your powers you will need to create a Grimoire."

"Do not misunderstand me, your Grimoire will also be your greatest weakness. You must store your Grimoire in a safe location, lest it fall into the wrong hands. To make a Grimoire requires giving up a part of your soul, and that's the last thing you want to let fall into other people's hands, witch or otherwise."

"Of course, this is special project status. And I want to see your finished works in my office first thing Monday morning." The headmistress turned from the chalkboard to glare at the lecture hall full of students, "You are dismissed. I do hope you girls can at least avoid getting in trouble for the entire weekend this time."

While the rest of the class filed out of the hallway, Bloom leaned over to Mirta trying to whisper, "What's the big deal about a Grimoire anyway?"

-o0o-

They were traveling by train. One, because it took longer to get to the castle of Solaria. That was still the last place in the galaxy that Stella actually wanted to be. Two, Bloom needed more time to work on putting together her Grimoire.

"I don't see the point of doing this. The book's just a pile of blank pages."

"Trust me, when it's done, you'll know why you needed it. Remember, at least three strands of hair, just like a good quality voodoo doll."

Stella just stared out at the passing trees, wishing for a layer of rain in the always bright Solaria. It made sense in a way why her mother just had to leave the place, even if it didn't make her feel any better about it.

"Stella, why aren't you worried about the project?"

"Oh, my mom and I made mine years ago." She still remembered reading it as a child and being so embarrassed about the way her teachers reacted to it. She remembered the day her mother left and locking the book into the vault where no one could find it. Even worse, she remembered being sent home from Alfea, and being drawn back into the vault by the book's silent comforting song.

Mirta just shrugged, "I did mine before registration with Lucy."

Bloom gahhed, "Yet another thing I miss out on because my parents are non magical. Ow!" jumping as Mirta yanked a few hairs from the back of her head.

"I'm just helping. Anyways, it'll be done, you'll find your specialty, and we can start on the next set of spells. It's almost a non-issue."


	2. 1e2 Witches make fun party guests

Wow, people actually looked at this one?

Guess I do have to write more now, don't I?

As you know, I don't own it. If I did, things probably would have turned out differently. Even without the girl/girl action.

-o0o-

"Stella sweetie? Wake up." Even as the nine year old was being shaken awake, she knew something was wrong. Her mother smelled slightly of smoke and brimstone, and even in the darkened room she could tell her mother had her hat on. Her 'special work' hat. Her witch's hat. The one that was a special secret her father could never know that her mother even had with her.

The blond girl fumbles around in the dark, finding her silver rimmed glasses where she left them before sleeping, slipping them onto her face, soon able to the light pink network traveling along the walls of her room shimmering in the moonlight as her vision sharpens. "Dear, I need you to make two promises to me right now. One, that you won't leave the castle for at least a week, and two, that you won't come looking for me till you finish your education." She turns her head at the window, tilting towards a faint explosion in the distance. She kisses her daughter's forehead, waiting to see the young girl nod in acceptance, "This is going to tickle for a second, but I have to transfer your protection over. Just be strong for me baby, I promise I'll be strong for you." For the faintest second, mother and daughter are one, tingling with energy as the older woman's spell attaches to the younger girl's body. Her mother stops for one last smile at her child before rushing for the open window, body glowing softly as she leaps out into the open air.

-o0o-

They stormed through the guards in a carefully preplanned formation, black gowns billowing in unison, the slightly tilted pointed hats on their heads drawing more attention then if the group had waltzed in on the backs of wild tigers (Which was still technically Stella's Plan A. Mirta was eventually able to change her mind regarding that plan, but only after pointing out that animal droppings were extremely annoying to clean up). Stella had already decided to lead the charge into enemy territory. Being the crowned princess, the few people that weren't afraid of the pack of obvious witches barging in on the ceremony also happened to be among the few people that knew Stella and Queen Luna directly as she grew up in the Solerian Castle only a few years ago.

The fact she and her entourage were decked out in what most witches of Cloud Tower affectionately referred to as 'Fairy Stalker's Gear' was not an accident. Mirta would not go to the ball without being able to wear black, Stella would not go to the ball without the classical witches hat, and Bloom was willing to agree to pretty much anything if she was distracted by homework enough. So it really did become the best and most formal option available to the teenagers.

Mirta stayed behind and to the blond's left, as Mirta didn't do well at parties. Her innate empathic powers did not mesh well with the amount of smoozing and blatant falsehoods that people of the highest social strata threw around so casually at almost any sort of official gathering. So the plan was to keep her as close to the wall as possible, while Bloom intercepted people for her. Bloom took up the the right position, and as such, herded people away from poor little Mirta, while keeping people from sneaking up on Stella from behind, the red head almost radiating the promise of sudden violent retribution. At least so went the plan.

As is blatantly obvious, the plan went South. Admittingly, in what could later be considered a totally good way, but still it failed.

The first problem consisted of the blinding headache Mirta was hit with upon the arrival of the Eraklyon dignitaries. Bloom was put on edge the moment her younger sister started wobbling, and immediately blamed it upon the sudden presence of Specialists in the ballroom. Specialists tended to react to most problems by hitting them with sticks as soon and as often as possible. Often this included any witches in that just happened to be in the area. It didn't help that they couldn't seem to take any kind of practical joke, yet they still made such perfect targets for the random prank, or cursing assignment, or what have you.

The second problem came in the form of the Trix. Not that they did specifically anything at all, but more precisely Mirta passing out the moment they entered the ballroom. Apparently Stella did send that invitation to them after all.

-o0o-

"I would have to say I'm most worried about the Crying one at this exact moment. The Laughing one has been dipping into both sides of her powers for years, so she shouldn't be overly effected, and the Smiling one apparently grew up in a magic-less reality for most of her life, so a sudden rush of power wouldn't be immediately noticeable to her. The Crying one has spent her entire life to this point trying to be a Witch, and she's never had to accept that her heart might be unusual compared to a more traditional witch. Her power is going to be way too unstable for at least three to four months for us to even begin training her here at Alfea."

"I understand that Fari, but you have to admit, their combined output is worth more detailed investigation. You wouldn't want them to go supernova one day and melt a city block, just because we felt they were 'too unstable' to train properly." Griffin smirked clasping her hands together as she leaned back in her chair. She did love being able to put little Faragonda on the defensive. While technically Cloud Tower had better overall public relations with Red Fountain, the two administrators were closer to each other on a more personal level.

The white haired woman sighs, sliding her glasses from her face, fingers squeezing at her temple. "Fine, fine. We can create a reality pocket in one of the lesser used training facilities for now. I'm sure DuFour would be a fair teacher in... whatever it is we are training those girls in. Mages tend to be a might more stable when training people in unknown arts."

"Wouldn't want to expose the poor girls to uptight little elves too soon?"

Faragonda almost stumbles over her reply, her cheeks blushing bright red, "Palladium is simply not emotionally ready to actually train anyone in wild magics, let alone a set of your witches." She stops for a split second, before continuing in the same rushed tone, "And there's no way I'm even letting Griselda know there are witches on the school grounds, so they're going to have to follow some rules."

-o0o-

"Oh my fucking god, that was fucking awesome. I mean, I knew something would happen, but I didn't think it could be that fucking awesome. It was like the first time I ever got to have ice cream before dinner, but that all put on top of a multiple rolling orgasm on top of a motherfucking ley line at midnight on Halloween, it was that fucking awesome. It's almost like the space pope and..."

"Stella dear... will you please shut the fuck up for at least a half second?" Mirta asks, putting her hand over the blond's face, the small red head's vision spinning as she comes to, as she trys to sit up on the bed of exceptionally soft pillows under her body, "What the hell happened in there?" Her face scrunches, trying to remember herself. She was at the party, there was the ringing in her ears, it kept getting louder and louder as the party droned on. Then just blackness... And red lines...

Stella mock pouts, crossing her arms, "It's no fun dealing with you empaths, it's all business, no foreplay." The blond takes a deep breath, steeling herself mentally for the recitation that's been building up in her head with no one to listen to it, "First the Trix walked in, and you passed out. Then Bloom was all like 'Bitch, you better rectify!' and she ran over and slapped Icy to the fucking floor. Then they started getting into a argument about why Icy couldn't have possibly hexed you when she was trying to get into the party herself. Then she bitch slapped Bloom. Then Bloom started strangling Icy, when that group of specialists from Eraklyon tried to break them apart. Stormy started cussing at them, there was a vague threat of violence, Darcy started up with the magic, the entire thing escalated to a brawl, so I snuck you up to my room before anyone decided you looked like an easy target. I think Bloom is still circling the city dueling with Icy... Oh, and Chimera's Princess Ball is completely ruined so... You know... Yay team!" Stella smiles, clapping her hands excitedly.

Mirta was staring blankly at her oldest sister, but to tell the truth she wasn't exactly paying one hundred percent attention to the story. In fact, when she reached out and touched the red strand coming from the girl's chest, she didn't expect the clean crisp electrical shock she received from it, or the image of the rather plain, muscular guy suddenly implanted in her head.

"Mirta sweetie? Do you need a little more rest?" Stella's head tilted slightly as her younger sister seemed to zone out, eyes going blank for just a moment.

The red head stood up, almost jumping off the bed, grabbing Stella's hand while leading her out of the bedroom, following the little red spark guiding her through the corridors of the castle. Part of her mind accepted that Stella was probably cursing at her, as that would be simply Stella's defense mechanism. She had a higher goal at hand, and no mere threat of violence would delay her.

Following her new found instinct, she pulled the princess though the hallways to a door marked Infirmary Six, opening the door to find the brunette man from her earlier vision. Admittedly shirtless and bandaging a nasty gash along his arm, but definitely the person she saw in the room above. She pushes Stella into the room, "There. You can help him way more then you can help me. Trust me here sis. I know you slipped something useful in with you."

Mirta turns, leaving with just with a wink and a wave over her shoulder, heading back towards the ballroom. Her head is still throbbing, but it's not that bad any more really. Even if she probably does have a lot more reading ahead of her to even start explaining this to her teachers, at least it's an interesting power to try to define.

Though, all things considered, Professor Zarathustra would probably want a six page report about it.

-o0o-

Bloom grumbles on the way back to her dorm room, torn gown dragging behind her as she slips through the shadowed halls of Cloud Tower. She'd definitely need a long, hot shower after tonight.

Any other day where a seven hour long shopping trip was followed almost immediately by a three hour long live fire combat exercise would have left her dead on her feet. But this time she was actually more upset at ripping Stella's dress then the fact Icy was a complete bitch who took a great amount of joy in making her suffer. And after all that flying her hair probably had to be a mess on top of it. Not to mention the fact she lost a shoe when she was frozen in that swimming pool, or that she ended up burning her purse to cinders in the first thirty minutes.

Even after all that there was still something about fighting with Icy that was so...

Dare she actually admit to it?

Might as well, Mirta probably already knows about it. And if she doesn't, she'd figure it out anyway. Can't keep anything away from psychics for too long.

Exciting.

Definitely just exciting. Not arousing. That would just be wrong...

Wouldn't it?

Well she was going to a Witch Academy. She was already an outcast among the students here, so that made her an outcast of the outcast. It wasn't like she was much better on Earth really. Mitzi did seem to exist to make her life a living hell just as much as Icy did. And it's not like she had many friends outside of Kiko and her parents back home really.

So yes, maybe if pressed, she could convince herself to admit that there was the slightest chance she may have felt something for the white haired super bitch that wasn't directly violence related. It did feel like she resented her a bit less then Mitzi, and Mitzi seemed to have the noticeable advantage that she didn't seem nearly so intent on murdering her...

So perhaps, on a more peaceful day, say if the shadows were playing off of Icy's skin just right, and she hadn't yet started attacking people verbally and physically, or she was lost in thought studying. Especially when she would be willing to let her hair down. Or the times when the cold edge would melt out of her eyes, and the compassion would slip through for a fraction of a second. Or when she'd slip and end up smiling at her sister's antics. Then Icy could be bea...

Nice.

Definitely, positively nice. Possibly even pleasing to the eyes. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bloom was so distracted by her frankly disturbing line of internal dialog that she didn't immediately notice upon opening the door to her shared dorm room, that the head mistress had been sitting on her favorite chair waiting for her the entire time. "This is most unusual. I actually expected that the Crying One would be the first one to return this evening."


	3. 1e3 Witches test well

I still don't own any part of Winx Club. Sure, I think it would be a lot cooler if the social ramifications buried inside the subplots where looked at in more detail, but that doesn't mean I own the product.

I'm just glad I can make your heads explode with awesome. Though I never understood why people see Bloom as such a perfect character. She's got so much amoral evil pumping through her veins, you'd think more fanfic writers would play up her burning irrational anger issues.

I mean, how just many AU's can you write where they're in _High School Musical_ anyway?

-oOo-

Witchcraft always seemed like such a viable answer.

Her father was a witch. Her mother was 'just' a psychiatrist, but her father was definitely a witch.

The first years of school weren't so bad for her really. Then her hair changed.

When she was born, she had black hair. Jet black like her father. Her mother was sure it was a sign that she'd make such a great witch someday.

Then it changed. Jet black became the most rosey of red. Not even slow and steady, which would have been easily acceptable or simply blown off as a dye job. Just smack in the middle of history class. In front of everybody. One minute the blackest of blacks, then magically shifting into a more unnatural blood red from root to tip.

Having the potential to have the potential be a witch was one thing. Spontaneously changing hair color was even better then that. For the next week she was special. Piles of tests with doctors and specialists studying her. For the next week, she was considered to be the youngest witch in her town.

Then the results came back. She was a dud.

She barely showed up on most mystical scales. If anything, she was almost draining other people of their magic. It took her twice as much work to get to what even a novice could do in their first week, and people suffered the risk of losing their own access to magic by simply being around her.

So in the span of one week, she went from likable, to genius, to outcast.

Obviously, no one in the universe would **want** to hang around a black hole. Not with so many better options available.

-oOo-

_"You three are now part of an exchange program."_

"As you can see Miss Faragonda, the first student tested fairly well in the examination. However, while she seems to have a birthright controlling both solar and lunar forces, her personal energy field has a signature with direct similarities more closely related to starlight. I'd like to take her training in that direction if you will allow it."

_"For the next two months, you three will be attending the Alfea College..."_

"The second student has simply incredible output, and as a result damaged the first of three crystals used during the test. She seems to be training exceptionally well in the realms of both fire and magical theory. After some additional analysis it appears that she is wielding either Spellfire, Dragonfire, or some unknown derivative of the two. I would like the authorization to continue her training, under the assumption that she has the capacity to wield both, until more accurate information can be found."

_"While you are there, you are not authorized to reveal that you are witches. While at Alfea, you will be posing as mage students from Pyros. Do you understand?"_

"The third student does not seem to have magical energy as it is commonly defined in our universe. However she both shows a talent for empathy, and more notably, acts as a psychic bridge between the previous two students. Her energy field shows traits and signatures of hundreds, possibly thousands of potential energy sources, and defining her core may be impossible with the level of technology we have access to. It's quite possible this form of power has never been seen in recorded history. I would like to continue to expose her to new situations and people, to help her adapt to her talents, until her degree of specialization becomes more clear to us."

-oOo-

"So his name is Skye, and I swear to god he's the cutest guy I've ever seen. Second Year student at Red Fountain. Prince of Eraklyon." Stella squeals happily, pacing the slightly smaller, much pinker room they've been given at Alfea. "And they're having an exhibition this week!"

Bloom looks up from her Grimoire, the book sitting in her lap as she sits on her assigned bed, her pet Kiko sitting on her head half asleep, "How did you find all that out?"

"I found his wallet."

Mirta mutters under her breath, "Stole more likely," not looking up from the scroll she is working on, her pen gliding over the paper of under it's own power.

Stella pouts, crossing her arms like a five year old who's just been told no for the first time, "I prefer pro-actively located."

Bloom turns the page in her book, the flickering letters dancing in front of her eyes, "So what is it we're supposed to do about it then? You don't really have that much of a chance. He's both a Specialist and some Prince Charming, and you've lost the rights to your crown, remember?"

Stella smiles, sighing happily. "We're going to go kidnap him for a bit."

The room is quiet for almost a full minute. Nothing even moves until Kiko falls off of Bloom's head, playing dead as he collapses into the Earthling's bedding.

Bloom's eye starts twitching on her, "Wait, what?"

"I said..."

"I know what you said. Do you know what you said? Because I don't know if you know what you just said. Because I don't think you would actually be able to think of, understand, and then continue on to say something like that, out loud, and at no point figure out how that plan might sound to anyone who wasn't already crazy." Her eye just will not stop. Twitch twitch, twitch twitch.

Mirta smiles, nodding her head, "But what's a little kidnapping and mayhem between friends, right? It's still Stella's plan you know, it's probably going to have some section specializing specifically in mayhem and violence."

"Anyways, it's a totally sweet plan, and I've already..."

"I'm out. DuFours wants me to spend all this week observing Avalon's hack of a class." Mirta continues nodding her head anyways, her attention focused on her scroll creation.

"Gah! Can you at least wait until I explain the god damn plan before you set out to ruin it? Mirta, you can be so rude some times. I spent all fucking week on it, you should at least be forced to hear it."

-oOo-

The modified plan (AKA: Plan F by the end of the week) was so simple, it couldn't help but succeed. Stella would sneak into the Red Fountain Dorms, acquire her boy toy, and be in and out in a few minutes while Bloom watched the arena entrance, looking for anyone named Skye, Prince of Eraklyon in case Stella failed to intercept him in the dorms. The plan should have gone perfectly, except for two small inconsistencies.

One, and probably pretty important, Bloom had never actually seen Skye. No picture, no rough description, nothing more then his name. Secondly, being around so many specialists and their horribly designed, dragon abusing arena put her on edge.

By some strange quirk of fate, the first person she was able to identify as Prince Skye of Eraklyon, had a blond trollop of a fairy hanging off his shoulder. Admittedly Stella could have a horrible taste in significant others, which she and others had informed the blond of on a few occasions already, but still the idea of one of her sisters being two timed was more then enough to put her into a blind rage.

In Gardina she was a relatively normal, if overly emotional girl. She didn't really look for fights back then. Sure she'd jump in to defend someone else, but she was never overly violent before. Back at the Tower, she was still never one to start a fight, but she did love finishing them. Her power was over fire. Fire that started in her veins, and only spread wildly while looking for more targets in it's burn radius until it could simmer down.

So to say when she was angry she had some potential cause property damage, would be a bit of an understatement. And the idea of good hearted, fowl mouthed Stella being cheated on by a filthy worthless Specialist Wizard was easily more then enough to put her into her property damage state.

Out came their swords, which is what her fire aura was for, pushing them away so she could direct the edges of her fire with her finger tips, lashing at the trainee wizards with whipping tendrils of flame. Bloom didn't quite remember how the fight had started, one moment she was thinking about Stella, the next she was being swarmed by armed specialists. Blondy activated her fairy powers, which only drew her attention enough for the witch to shower her with flaming embers, forcing the fairy to defend with apparently crystal based powers.

Of course, this was all but a distraction from her main goal, ripping the face off of this so called Prince Charming. Part of her even acknowledged that most of it was for show to scare away the less then combat ready people from the area. The rest of her mind was more focused on getting to the point where she would be free incinerate Prince what's his face into a more simplistic carbon based smear.

Bloom's eyes roll back in her head as she begins chanting, the words don't matter so much as the feeling, Her world flooding with warmth and heat as ancient lost words of fire slide from her lips, pointing a single finger at the soon-to-be deceased Prince, holding up his little blue shield, the world melting away as she draws up the thin orange strand of pure dragon fire, seconds from

"Bloom!"

The redhead blinks, snapping out of her trance, falling from a few inches off the ground to land her ass on the seared circle of ground she's created in the cement. Looking up, Stella's standing over her prone body, with a tall brunette guy standing behind her. "Why is it I can't even take you out into public without you trying to blow up someone, some place, and/or something?"

-oOo-

There had to be magic in the number six.

As expected, Professor Zarathustra wanted that six page report on her 'talent mutation'. Fine, that's understandable. Professor DuFour wanted a six page report on identifying a potential mage's spirit animal. Also would be fine, if not for the stress caused already by Professor Zarathustra. Both, in addition to the six page comparative philosophy essay that Avalon wanted from her, it was starting to border on too much work. When Professor Griffin wanted a six page status report on the progress of her coven, it was officially hair pulling time, which would have been much easier to deal with, had her sisters not just run off two minutes before that particular request was dropped on her head, following a half cocked scheme that would probably result in property damage if not a week of forced community service (probably closer to six days considering her luck). The note stuck to her sister's shared Alfea dorm room informing them of a pending meeting with Professor Faragonda herself, also included an addition request for a six page status report on their training. It really seemed the 'exchange program' was really just a cover story to make her do school work for both magic schools.

So all in all Mirta was already fairly irritable when her cellphone started beeping. She could tell by the tone it was Stella calling, so either something really bad was happening, or Stella was going to be bringing back lunch.

Standing up from her table, the witch flips her little black phone open, walking back toward the library entrance, "Talk". She wasn't intent on annoying the librarians as well, especially with so much research left to do, she couldn't risk being kicked out for making a disturbance, so a small break couldn't hurt her really.

Stella's voice wavers a little on the other end of phone, "Well... there's a little bit of a problem."

"Oh well, lunch was a long shot anyways. Define problem." Mirta sighs to herself softly, Stella could be fairly reliable and friendly, but she was still more likely to call just after things started blowing up around her.

"Let's see, Problem. We had to pro-actively borrow a Red Fountain air transport, and Dumbfuck over here was about to Final Spell some random douche in a crowd." The witch could hear muttering in the background on the other end of the line, "I don't care if you're driving, you don't use a spell designed to take down buildings on a guy and his skanky girlfriend. Not while they can see your newbie witch ass anyway. Oh, and all related property damage and potentially angry students and parents."

Mirta sighed, blowing the braid from in front of her face as she leans back against the library entrance, "And... What is it I'm supposed to do about this?"

"Annny ways. I need you to activate the other side of the conduit I brought with me from the tower. It should be in the closet. White duffel bag marked 'Hamdingers: Not for consumption', you can't miss it sis."

"Hamdingers?"

"Don't ask, it's my mother's idea. No sane fucking person would want to touch anything called a Hamdinger. At least by her logic"

Seemed simple enough. "Did you at least get the guy?" The witch walking back to the shared dorm room, trying to keep her sister on the phone.

"Less kidnapping, a touch more long term dating. I got his digits, he got mine, **WATCH OUT FOR THAT FUCKING BOULDER, **so we're probably going to meet up after this whole incident blows over a little."

"Umm... okay..." Mirta reasoned that Stella was either much more upset then she wanted to let on, or suffered severe multiple personality disorder. In either case she started to jog back to her room, rather then her steady walk. "So Bloom is okay with all this?"

"Bloom? Bloom's golden." The sound of a distant explosion can be heard though the phone line, so things were definitely getting worse over there. "Though I think she's getting a bit creative with her abuses of gravity shifting spells. If you could be a dear, we would really love if you could get that conduit up sooner rather then later. These specialist fuckers seem to have decided that a little grand theft and a touch of chaotic wackiness is reason enough to whip out the anti-aircraft weaponry."

"Gimmie... Forty five seconds sis." pushing open her door with her free hand, "Kiko, pop the closet please."

Strangely, in addition to being the first witch from Earth in possibly centuries, somehow Bloom had created a Familiar by accident. Kiko wasn't like other bunnies, even though it did take everyone a few weeks to catch on to his gifts, Kiko was practically born to assist. The rabbit had the closet open (after flinging himself at the knob and twisting his body) before Mirta could finish striding across the room. The white bag in the closest was obvious, but partially buried behind a rack of shoes. Mirta pulls the bag out from the closet, knocking over the blond princesses shoes as she drops the bag onto the floor.

"Mirta, running out of time here. If you could put a rush order on that thing."

She pulls the bag open, exposing the numerous silvery metallic items contained within, but only two looked like they could be magical conduits though. "Blue or Gold?" Mirta shouts into the phone, holding up two flat silvery spikes in her hand, each capped with a different gem, one blue, and one gold..

"Blue of course sweetie." Stella attempts to say calmly, Mirta's hand already moving before she can finish the sentence. She cuts her palm with the blue spike, throwing the now bloody tool into the floor in a single smooth motion, split seconds before the room flashes orange in a tiny explosion of fire, Stella and Bloom falling from midair, landing on the plush carpeting with painful thuds.

It takes a moment for the three to settle, the witches staring at each other collapsed on the floor. Shoes tossed onto the floor, Mirta's hand bleeding into the carpet, Kiko still hanging from the closet doorknob, Bloom's hair tips scorched by flame. Still it's only a few moments before Stella begins to laugh, head tilting back with infectious laughter as she finally calms back down to more sensible levels, the rest of her coven soon can't help but join her.

-oOo-

Musa takes a silent step away from the open door. She just wanted to find out why the red head was in such a rush on a Saturday.

If she just went on with her own business, she'd probably even not have to worry about it until something happened.

But there's no doubt in her mind, that was pure witchcraft.

Someone had slipped witches into Alfea.


	4. 1e4 Act Two

AN: Yeah, It's taken me a while. Work sucks, and this chapter's been rewritten seven or eight times and sucks. Though I've gotten a few great ideas for the next few parts.

Same universe of course. I hope you did notice the turning point was as simple as Stella getting kicked out of Alfea and going to Cloud Tower, because her father didn't pull strings to get her back in, because he was remarrying about two years earlier and trying to get Chimera into Alfea? Which makes it so Stella is going to Cloud Tower when Bloom saves her, which... Yeah.

Not mine really, but the characters are way more fun then they're already being used. Need more witchy Bloom stories too.

-oOo-

Okay, **this** part she missed.

When she started at Cloud Tower, the first A+ she got was for energy focusing. It was quite literally the most fun she ever had in her life up to that point, being able to reach into the depths of her soul, pulling at what ever she could find there. It didn't hurt that in the same place where some people found darkness, lightning, or ice, she found fire and lots of it. And what a rush to have that much power just flowing from a simple thought from inside her heart.

Outside of Red Fountain she was just angry. Nothing like the cool and calm desire washing over her in the red hot flames now. That time she was little more then an animal. This time, this time she was something more. Something perfect, precise.

Ms. DuFours was a more focused on teaching her control rather then raw output. She now knew six different 'flavors' of fire and understood the theory behind seven more. Warming fire, shadow casting fire, fire that burned without needing air, living fire itself. She even found her way to draw out the sparkly fire deep within her soul. Her truest fire. But for all that training and specialization, not one exorcise that let her just pop off the limiters, and go whole hog.

Then they showed up.

-oOo-

Never let it be said living with Bloom wasn't frustrating.

Because it could be. She loved the girl like a sister, but Bloom was prone to mood swings, and Mirta was always dragged along on every one. There was something unlucky about being an empath connected to an overly emotional dragon and a disaffected princess.

So while it was a good thing that Bloom was holding off those... things, Mirta could feel that the other red head was not holding back any more, which would make her position a bit more... difficult overall.

Stella in one of her forward thinking moments, brought a tent along with her. Just a magical collapsible thing really, nothing too fancy. So the three fairies, Stella, and herself were not horribly cramped, but the tent wasn't designed for more then two or three people, and stuffing five into the tight space made focusing on magic fairly difficult.

Because Mirta was the only one that actually paid any sort of attention in medical class, she was delegated the responsibility of handling the three fairies, while Stella reinforced the tent from the inside, where as Bloom got to explode on the pack of wild dog things that smelled of emptiness outside.

The first fairy was completely unconscious. No movement, no breathing, her body was cold to the touch. In a different situation, she'd be more worried as the girl appeared to be dead. But the purple haired girl was an android anyways, so those problems were consistent with the gaping hole in her chest. Nothing that a field technician couldn't fix in an hour with access to a well stocked workshop, even though it did look like someone stole her power core earlier.

Fairy number two was a pumpkin. It was definitely more active then the average pumpkin, and it still seemed to be a fairy... Just a pumpkin for now. That one was stable overall... Except that she was a pumpkin. No sign of being cursed, just the faint smell of nothingness that probably came from the dog things. A god damn pumpkin.

Pumpkin!

Number three was still in shock. The Asian wasn't speaking, was barely reacting, and would not respond to any questions. Other then that, she seemed to be fine, just quiet and shivering like a mouse. Again like the others, no sign of a normal curse, just the overwhelming scent of nothingness again.

-oOo-

"Griff, the girl has been in my school for almost a month now. I've seen her wield dragon fire as if it was her birthright. You know exactly what that means."

"There's no proof that she is or is not Farigonda. I'd rather not force a girl down a path of insanity and chaos, simply because she might be the last member of a dead royal family."

"You fought along side Miriam and Oritel as well. It would be in everyone's best interests to at least expose the girl to her past."

"She's barely fifteen Fari..."

"There's little point in trying to hide her origins from her. If we try to hide her away, she will most likely discover them on her own, and that may lead her into reviving **him**."

"...Fine then. **WE** will tell her. But I do not believe she is capable of his actions, whether she knows of them or not..."

"She's easily angered, and loyal to the death."

"Baltor never understood loyalty. Though at this point it would be best not to involve Saladin."

"Oh, you received that report as well?"

"Replacing his damaged machine was simple enough, and no one was killed, so it was a worthwhile transaction. If only it was so easy to cover for my other covens."

"Having problems with Icy again?"

"That girl is so irritable of late. Earlier today I found her torturing a number of the younger witches for little reason at all. The past few weeks she's become quite the hellion."

Farigonda crossed her arms, pondering the statement for a moment. "In the good way or the bad way?"

"In the bad way, of course." snapped Griffin, shutting off the two way mirror in a huff of frustration.

-oOo-

Fire wasn't working.

They didn't like it, that was sure. And if she could make it sharp and hot enough, she could cut them and cauterize the wound before they could heal back.

Did she mention they could heal? A whole hell of allot of healing. They could, without question, heal faster then she could burn them with the simple stuff. And they seemed to actually **like** being hit with her Dark Fire.

They also seemed to be tentacled inside, so just cutting them seemed to make it harder to fight them in the long run. Demon beasts of some sort at the very least. Which meant someone had to have summoned them.

So Bloom had to change her style a bit, Golden Fire spilling from her fingertips. It would probably get messy before this was over, but too many people were depending on her for her to give up just yet. Anyways, it were just starting to get interesting in the first place.

-oOo-

Stella had to use **that** staff.

The staff her reject father gave to her.

The gift that was supposed to start her off on her journey to fairy hood.

The one she swore never to touch again. After he married **her**.

Bloom was at least trying to be rational. She could feel the circle of fire around the tent twisting and blocking for the most part. A fire elemental trying to protect the tent from the beasts outside that wanted the fairies with them.

Her energy was focused on supporting the tent, and she needed to use the Solar Staff just to keep herself going. The tent was magical, even fire resistant to a degree, but it wasn't designed to hold up during a full fledged firestorm. For that it needed even more magic, and to do that Stella needed to focus.

Of course, while one section of her mind was focused on charging wards and the elementals outside battling, she couldn't help but think of her father. What would he say if he knew she was using the staff to power her witchcraft? He'd probably just want to take back the artifact, and give it to that little spoiled bitch Chimera.

She had no love for Cassandra. And even less love for her little rat child. Why should she?

A thought which she couldn't focus on for too long. Needing to keep herself and the others alive had priority over hateful nostalgia.

At least until she could get home to a nice warm bath.

-oOo-

'Sister, you must come and find me...'

Sister? She was an only child. It definitely wasn't one of her coven mates. A battle really wasn't the place to practice telepathy with little warning.

'Bloom...'

Bloom? 'Pardon me.' Her telepathy was... not too great. Mirta could do it... technically. She didn't really like doing it, and it was much harder then just working with her empathy, but it was never her favorite form of communication. 'Bloom's busy at the moment, you should try again later.'

'She must go to Sparx...'

For a split moment, the small red head is flooded with a confusing single vision of a glowing nymph, blowing snow, and drowning. All followed by the sickening nausea of an anti-magic field washing over the tent.

At least she could tell the fires outside were dying down before she passed out.

-oOo-

The dream was getting annoying at this point. It was always started as while she was floating in the empty void between burning fire and running water.

Yes, her _Earth_ parents were forced to admit she was adopted. That her father found her playing as an infant in a burning building. She already assumed it, considering most magic left Earth hundreds of years ago, the last trip home just confirmed her suspicions. So her _Earth _parents weren't her birth parents. She was still their daughter, even if she wasn't technically an Earthling by birth. She could deal with the fact she wasn't actually from the planet, but the dreams made the alternative sound so stressful, she figured that being raised on nice and quiet Earth wasn't really all that bad in comparison.

"Sister, you must come and find me..." Always begging. The female voice kept calling out to her. Promising information about her origins, about her true family. Never following through though, just begging.

"Ignore her, the watery tart doesn't know what she's talking about. You know you have to find me first!" The male voice made her angry for some reason. On an instinctive level really. Like if she ever met the body attached to the voice, she'd just start slapping him until her arm fell off. And there was no proof that would be enough to stop her.

"Him?! You simply can not, he's a lowly warlock, and killed our parents!" And of course the yelling. Disembodied female hated disembodied male almost as much as she did. Not that their arguments made it any easier for her to sleep.

"Shows how much you know wench, our parents are fine! She's obviously not a fairy, so why would she even listen to your moronic pleas..."

"You killed me!"

"I wasn't even on the planet when you died! It's not my fault you can't handle a couple of old hags! Our mother would be ashamed..."

"Ashamed? If anything the very idea that her oldest would try to kill the planet she loved..."

"Loved?! She was a water fairy forced into a marriage on a fire planet, I'm sure she would have thanked me for..."

"Will you two please shut up!"

Bloom shoots awake in an unfamiliar bed, Kiko sleeping in her lap, a brunette fairy asleep in a chair next to her, Mirta in her lap.

Sure, Mirta was a pumpkin at this point, but it was clearly the little redhead. Mirta was the center of the coven, they all could just feel each other by now. And she was in the middle of a medical ward, quite likely Alfea's, as they would definitely feel if they were inside Cloud Tower. The moon was out, high and bright in the sky. Waxing gibbous so it was probably late evening, about nine or ten.

The door creaks open, a blond head bobs into the room. "I thought you would be getting up." Stella slides in the door, fairies slipping in behind her. The Asian one who they found in shock, the purple haired one who had the nasty chest wound limped in on a metal cane. Ms. DuFours of course, followed by Farigonda, then surprisingly Ms. Griffin as well.

For an uncomfortable moment, the group stands around the bed, the brunette waking quietly from the shuffling in the room. Griffin and Farigonda making eye contact between each other, seeming to have an unspoken conversation around the crowded bed. Farigonda breaking the silence, "Girls, we need to talk."


	5. 1e5 Greater then the sum of it's parts

AN: Man, I totally forgot about this story.  
I think it's a bit of an understatement of how much I hate the other chapter five I was working on. I like this other one a bit more to tell the truth.

So we're all on the same page, I don't own winx club, I don't speak italian, and I still don't know what the heck happened to that cat pixie pet in the first movie.  
I so want to know where that was supposed to go.

The following is fanwork. Also, need more witch centric Bloom fics, just saying.

-oOo-

The bridge of her nose between her fingers, squeezing gently. While it was still too damn bright in Alfea, it was still better then the alternatives. Bloom lets out a sigh as yet another specialist walks by glaring at her. Damn it all. If it was a normal school year, she would be studying for finals around now, not just hanging around being useless.

Mirta was still a pumpkin. Spell backlash had put her younger sister in that position, curing the fairy, while inflicting herself with a variant of the nature fairy's curse. She knew what the cure was, and subconsciously, she was pretty sure Mirta knew herself by now. Even before the two weeks they had had to get to know Flora, it was fairly obvious to her why none of the other witches or fairies had been successful breaking the spell just yet.

Which would have been a problem on it's own, if not for Miss Griff showing up at the fairy school just after that forest incident. Apparently, while she was off trying to complete the herbalism project, the Trix were in the process of overthrowing Cloud Tower. So now her connection to the place was severed, and half the student body had be evacuated into Alfea. Even with the expansion charms and assistance from the non-defecting staff, it was a rather tight fit, not to mention worsening the existing high tensions between the two school populations under even the best of circumstances.

Then Red Fountain fell. Not captured, the whole damn thing fell out of the sky. It took quite a few of those demon things attacking, while a phalanx of witches (say half the population of Cloud Tower) negated every levitating property the island had. Needless to say, Alfea opened its doors up to that school as well, creating a social powderkeg of hormonal teenagers, with long standing personal grudges, limited resources, and an abundance of magical powers and weapon technology at their disposal. And with no direct attacks on Alfea in the past week, the entire population was becoming restless.

Still, looking at it impartially, Icy's plan was a really good one if she wanted to get the three schools to kill each other in her stead.

-oOo-

"No way..." Stella muttered to her self, holding to the body of her current boy toy Brandon. Yes, she was in a state of undress, and he was in a state of undress, and yes they were lying in his bed, sweat glistening off their bodies, and that was a very very nice orgasm, and his lips felt very very fucking nice on her neck, but that's besides the point.

The point is... Yes, lips along her chest easily felt as nice as down her neck

The point... Yes, that was clearly the nicest place of all.

The point could wait a few hours.

-oOo-

Flora sat on her bed, relaxing, centering her self, pumpkin in her lap, working on the meditation technique she was picking up from being near Bloom and Stella so frequently the past few weeks. Even if it did seem pretty effective, it was very strange finding herself spending time with witches now, especially after her first few months at the school were spent being tormented by the Trix almost constantly.

The first thing she was able to focus on started with the blob of blood red energy in her lap, Mirta. She could even feel Mirta's energy respond to her own, which was such a strange feeling, causing blood to rush to her cheeks every time. Through Mirta, she could feel Bloom, sitting outside of the school's main entrance, letting the sun bathe over her, waiting for the thing she wanted most in the world. Bloom always seemed to be waiting, waiting for the one thing that made everything in her life worth doing. She could feel that Mirta and even Stella knew what it was, but Bloom herself hadn't quite figured out her own deepest puzzle.

Through Bloom was Stella, the princess of the Sun and Moon. She was content with her position in life, contrary to her rather vocal opinion otherwise. She seemed... preoccupied. It would be impolite to disturb her mid-coitus, so focusing through her, she could feel Techna.

Her roommate Techna was always a little weird and distant, but Flora could still taste the fear in the back of her throat when she thought that Darcy had killed her while ripping out her heart. In the past weeks Techna was now slipping into more emotional states, the Staff of Soleria in her chest, the solar magic replacing her electronic heart, the integration having an effect on the robot girl's outlook towards the rest of world.

The last person she could feel was her other roommate Musa, who had been drowning her sorrows in music, headphones cutting her off from everything else. Stormy took from her the one thing she loved more then anything else, her voice. She still could play music, but the music fairy was down right violent without her voice. A month or two ago, and she was panicking about a 'Witch Invasion', and now she was slipping into the personality of a witch herself.

Still the past few weeks were interesting though. With Icy and crew constantly hounding her and her friends, it was easy to discount witches as evil, but getting to know a few of them... Sure most of them were angry at the world in some way, and quite a few didn't seem to care about the repercussions of their actions. But it was hard not to think of Stella as a slightly unusual light fairy, or Mirta as special type of love fairy, or... Well, truth be told, Bloom seemed a bit power mad and combat hungry, so it was really hard to see her as a fairy, but she was still basically a good girl.

Even if she was a little bit of a megalomaniac at times.

-oOo-

Saladin paced around the office. Griffin stood in the shadows behind her desk. Farigonda stood next to her mirror. It was not polite to expect the other headmasters to stand, and the meeting was not large enough to require one of the larger meeting rooms.

"And that is the whole of the situation." The two witches and the wizard nodded in agreement, as Farigonda continued, "It's likely the defecting students are preparing an assault on either the city of Magix, or Alfea itself."

Griffin sighed, setting her forehead in her hands, "From the information my source has gotten to me, it appears that they are spending the majority of their time charging mystical batteries. It's quite possible that they are planning on attacking both targets at once, forcing us to defend only one or to split our forces between the two."

There was a few minutes of silence in the room, the three elders mulling over the information they had.

"I think we select a new Company of Light." Saladin smiled, tapping his staff against the floor, "We need people who think like these young witches do. It was impossible to revive the dark army, yet these three girls did, so we're going to need a few impossibles working for us as well. That **is** why we put these schools so closely together in the same realm, isn't it? We need to promote unity and imagination, and we're not going to do it just hanging around here being the old fogies that we are."

-oOo-

It was so clear! Bloom had to have know what would solve the problem, even Mirta by now, but they were both so close to the situation they probably couldn't see it! The blond shot down the hallway, dodging students and guests alike, eager to share her realization with the one person who could actually do something with it!

Yes, admittingly it wasn't until the third orgasm that she figured it out, but still, it was now perfectly clear! It was just

"Stella, we need to have a word with you."

Her joyous mood fell as Griselda's fingers closed around her shoulder. Damn it all. The old battle axe had to be the meanest fairy in the galaxy, and there was no way she could figure a way to sweet talk her out of it.

Plastering on a polite smile, she turned to face the administrator, glad for one small thing so far that had gone her way.

At least she didn't blurt out 'fuck' yet.

-oOo-

Bloom jumped as the blood red swirl touched her arm, jerking suddenly, the younger red head standing next to her, "Mirta? You're not a... you know... pumpkin anymore..."

Both witches started blushing, "Stella... figured it out... and you know how she is... and well..." Mirta dug her heels into the dirt, inspecting her shoes while avoiding her sister's gaze. "Anyways, Stella's calling a meeting."

"What? Why do we need a meeting? If she wants to talk, she can come out here and talk. You get love's kiss and..."

"Not a coven meeting." Mirta blurted out, blushing even deeper, still trying to change the subject "Bigger. Really big. Huge even."

Bloom crossed her arms, glaring down at Mirta even more then before, "You're dodging the subject. It was Flora wasn't it? I was thinking that it could be her, but..."

"They're doing something. About the Trix. And they put Stella in charge. Of everything." Mirta interrupted, her face still bright red, clearly avoiding the previous subject.

Bloom was caught with her mouth open, really hoping her jaw didn't drop. Still, it could have. It would be insane to put a freshman witch, a fairy school drop out in charge of what was probably a counter invasion force. You should call an army, get a group of generals together. Bomb it from orbit. You didn't put kids in charge when so much was on the line.

But really, it did kind of make sense. Stella had always been the ring leader of their group. They wouldn't even be a coven without her. So giving her a bigger gang to work with was just natural... In a way.

A sick and twisted way, but a way all the same.

-oOo-

Okay, **This**.

Her entire life, she was trying to make somebody happy. At first it was her father, her mother, her teachers. It was always a matter of trying to make somebody else happy. When that blew up in her face, literally, she reacted by trying to make herself happy. It was a little better, but something was missing.

She was kind of happy, but there was no point to it beyond the hedonism.

At least until Griselda interfered. Now she'd been given a goal, a reason. Even better then that she was given the tools to do so.

It wasn't about making other people happy, it wasn't about making herself happy.

It was about making everyone happy. If they liked it or not. That was her reason to be. The purpose of royalty was not to live in luxury. It was not to kowtow to the rich, or the powerful. It was to direct things to best make as many people as happy as possible.

And, title or not, she was royalty, by birth and by nurture. It was practically part of her genetic coding. She was born for this.

So it was with a smile Stella turned around to the room of assorted fairies, witches, specialists, some of whom she loved, some who she had fought with directly, some years her senior, with the statement, "And as you can see, while Team A and B must begin immediately, Team C will attack at dawn."

Damn it felt good.


	6. 1e6 For the greater good

I feel a little bad for just lying to Bloom like that, but if she knew why she had to go along with Zero Team, it would compromise the mission. I had to lie a little more to the rest of the team, but it really is for the greater good.

Of course I had to lie to the teachers and most of the other students as well. There's most likely a spy somewhere in at least one of the schools, and it's better to let them have access to the parts of the plan I want the Trix to have. It's grade school manipulation at the most basic level.

…

… Fucking damn it, I'm turning into my father.

…

On the plus side, I don't plan on fucking marrying out of god damned obligation either, so that's at least a slight improvement over Daddy. Also, I've picked up a few trade skills from my grandmother, so that's two things my father would never do. Hard work and love seem to be beyond of his range of understanding.

So here I am, three in the morning, when I should be sleeping. Instead I'm fusing magic and metallurgy in an abandoned lecture hall, uncomfortable wood beating the shit out of my ass. Most of this work requires weeks of long work under the apex of the full moon's light by a master crafts witch. But I am the witch of the moon and the sun, so I'm cheating. A little bit of moonlight isn't that hard to throw together in an emergency for some one like me.

I might be a liar, but there's no way I'm going to send my friends into a hornet's nest relying on some generic specialist garbage tech.

-o0o-

I feel a little bad about lying to those three, but it's all true. Musa is the only one who can do what we need her to, Riven is the only one with the drive to make sure it all happens right in the end, and Bloom is strong enough to do it without needing to kill everyone in the process.

Still, the defecting witches are just being witches. The Trix had power, and they want some of that for themselves. After having spent the last two weeks emotionally, if not physically connected to Flora, even with the campus swarming with witches, fairies, and specialists, I'm still afraid to ask around to see if anyone's seen Lucy.

But knowing her as well as I do, Lucy probably is working under the Trix back at the tower as well. She always did seem to gravitate towards who ever was the most powerful in any given situation. Even if it did usually result in both of us being hurt by it in some way.

But thinking about it logically, Bloom probably already knows why she was picked, either consciously or unconsciously. I can tell Riven thinks knows why and already hates it, even though he doesn't completely understand it yet. And Musa hasn't even realized her own potential for it, probably because she's spent so much time hating witches. So yeah, I feel a little horrible doing it to them, but if the plan was executed properly, then everyone might get a happy ending out of it.

Stella's plans do seem to work. Usually. Even if they do seem a bit... Chaos dependent and non-linear.

It's not like she'd killed anyone.

Yet.

That we knew about.

-o0o-

It, like many other of Stella's plans, was one of the craziest fucking things she'd ever heard.

Most defensive fairies and witches who needed prep time were assigned to Team A with most of the teachers, with the intent to build a system of shields around Alfea. That part kind of made sense. Alfea would be the home base, and well defended, especially once the correct barricades were in place.

Most of the specialists, healing fairies, and witches trained in controlling and directing the masses were sent to protect the City of Magix Proper. It seemed odd to send some of their strongest and best trained to protect the city, but it was still a good idea. With Codatorta and his dragons there as well, it would be easy for them to hold off most any assault. With them traveling to the city already, preparing for individual strategies before sunrise, they could keep injuries and losses to a minimum, as well as gain assistance from the city's defenses as well. That also made sense.

Combat witches, fairies, specialists, and anyone willing to fight made up Team C, which was already prepping to leave at sun rise. Their objective was to enter the forest as a mobile force, and support either of the two teams, or draw the engagement towards the more advantageous city battle site.

She would have been happy to be in Team C, but Bloom was needed for a special project. That and the fact Diaspro and her royal guard had offered to lead Team C, and things were still a little strained between the Earthling and the Princess after that whole 'Trying to Kill You' thing a few months back...

Fun times...

Instead the Fire Dragon was stuck laying in bed, trying to get a few hours of sleep, mind rolling through all the potential failures in the plan. All while trying not to think of the blue haired witch who would probably be trying to kill her in a few hours.

It's clearly a sort of cornflower blue.

Or maybe it's more powder blue? Or robin's egg?

… Not that her brain would let her anyways.

… And it's definitely more a platinum then just a blue.

-o0o-

"Musa, trust me. I wouldn't ask you to do this, if I didn't think you could." Flora sits the tiny crystal up on the counter again, the clock on the counter of their dining area showing just before four am in shining blue letters. "Mirta thinks you can do this, and I believe in her, and more importantly I believe in you. If any one can do this, I know that you can. You just have to... you know adapt to the situation."

The situation being the currently mute musician glaring at her brunette roommate, exhaling in frustration, before running her fingers down the silvery flute, repositioning her hands, to try one more time.

… Coming from a Witch or not, the theory was sound, and they did need a musician to pull it off. It was just like a vocalist shattering crystal with their voice.

Of course, when the crystal she was working on shattered, it would probably be accompanied by a large explosion. And unlike a vocalist, she still lacked her voice. And the flute Stella wanted her to use wasn't one that from her collection, and was completely unfamiliar to her..

But she was still a music fairy, first and foremost. Voice or no voice, she was still willing to prove it.

-o0o-

"I welcome you to the illustrious, Cloud Tower!" Bloom belted out, arms stretched above her, the common blue cloak draped over her shoulders, sword slightly concealed at her side. Behind her in the sewage overflow tunnel, was Riven, outfitted much the same as she was, his sword embossed with slightly different runes then her own... But the redhead sucked at runecraft, so it could well be elvish gibberish as far as she could tell with her limited experience. But Bloom was starting to feel a little nervous, which resulted in her feeling the need to speak even more.

"The largest single life form in Magix, Cloud Tower was established some three hundred and fifty years ago under then High Witch Ortiz, using a modified stone skin mushroom as a genetic base." Pulling up the rear was Musa, the now mute fairy of music. The Trix had done a number on her, seeing as she wasn't technically cursed, she had her voice stolen from her in some fashion. Bloom really didn't have the heart to tell her that if the Trix were using her voice as the power source, they'd most likely have to destroy it as well, so it was yet another thing she couldn't dwell on. Instead of an alchemical silver sword, Stella had given the fairy an enchanted flute. While it did seem to make her a little more special, it really was more of a warning that she and the specialist were in this to protect her, by the edge of the sword as some would say.

So the Earth witch just marched through the tunnel with her 'merry' band. The Specialist who was always growling, and the Singing Fairy that couldn't speak.

Oh well, at least at this rate, they'd be inside the tower in just a under an hour.

She did still miss it's heart beat.

-o0o-

Stella paces in front of a holographic map of Cloud Tower, the blond carrying a long wooden pointer as she speaks. In a darkened lecture hall, with just her coven sisters, the specialist known as Riven, and the fairies Techna, Musa, and Flora. She wanted no one to interfere in this meeting, no leaks, no paper trail, no notes taken. This meeting wasn't happening, and wouldn't go further then these seven people.

"Harmonic discord. I'm sure a few of you remember that I was kicked out of Alfea last year due to a mostly unintentional yet highly destructive explosion." Stella sighed, rubbing her forehead. She hated having to explain her actions 'last year', but this time it was mildly important. "I was experimenting with methods to flash overcharge crystalline energy batteries. You know, get more power out then you put in? I was playing with introducing discordant harmonies that would cause the crystal to react by releasing energy in through multiple vectors."

"Judging by how much Griselda wants to keep you out of the alchemy lab, I think it worked." There's a light chuckle out of Riven at Techna's off handed comment, and Mirta at least has the decency to blush while covering her mouth.

Stella sighs, more to herself then anyone else. Her 'fairy-school' semester brought back so many annoying memories. Ones she'd rather not think about, including step-sisters. "More importantly, our source inside says the third basement dungeon is just full of batteries, which is consistent with the research we have on how much energy it takes to keep a void demon alive under the stresses of standard reality. Your group's mission, is to enter the school through the sewage system here," Her pointer directed at a section towards the base of the holomap, "super charge their power source, then join up with Team C afterward, and assist in the final phase, to presure the demons until they run out of power."

"The likely outcome, is that they will need to pull more power to sustain the demons, which should cause a catastrophic failure in their power supply, hopefully resulting in an end to this whole thing."

-o0o-

If she was being rational about it, Diaspro was actually a fairly good field leader. Better then the betrothed at least. And Prince Sky's group was at least functional while fighting off the current wave of demons, which is why the third team existed.

All things considered, Sky was probably a good special forces man, where Stella would feel safe with Diaspro protecting the support lines. If it came to that. Sky was willing to kill himself to get a job done, where his fiancee was all about large scale group management and long term goals.

Still, the Witch of the Sun, Moon, and Stars was fairly happy with the plan so far. The Trix were acting strangely though, Stormy had moved to strike the city with a contingent of their witches, Team C had positioned behind them, while Team B held the witches to the outskirts of town. With the dragons supplying air support, that battle was going well. Yet Stella kept scrying across the realm, looking for the missing pieces.

Stormy was the baby of the Trix coven. It would be as if she let Mirta go into combat solo. It's not like this was a fucking magical sciences test, if Stormy was out, Darcy or Icy should be out as well. No one had moved in Cloud Tower except for Stormy and her group, so where the fuck where those bitches?

-o0o-

"I really wish I knew what you were thinking." Icy took her time coming down the steps, savoring the glares she was receiving from the witch and the specialist, "To just walk into our lap like that? It's really stupid Firefly, you could have been badly hurt. Before I got to you of course."

Of course it wasn't going smoothly any more. It had to be the duck they passed coming up for the sub-basement. Icy just would get a familiar without telling her, wouldn't she? "I'm sorry Snow**flake**, did you think I roll over that easily?" fingers closing around the hilt of her blade under her cloak, Riven behind her doing the same while stepping back into the dim hall way. If they were really lucky, and Icy hung back alone to defend the tower, they would only have to deal with her and her demons. The fire witch and the specialist alone should be enough to keep her from finding the fairy working a few floors down.

Riven's voice speaks up, the metal of his sword humming against leather as he draws his blade behind her, "I'm sorry Bloom, I didn't want it to come to this." Thanks to Riven, it was now obvious that the red head wasn't so lucky this time.

-o0o-

Yeah, cliffhanger. I wanted to finish this on six, but then it just kept going and going, and now we're here.

So now I'm off to start on seven, and epilogue after that. Reviews are nice, but I'm not going to stop over them. I'm not really excited about Year Two but I've got a few ideas, and Year Three and Four will be very nice, if not completely different.

Oh, and here's a small tip, Alfea is a three year college, not a four year high school. Look it up, In year four, they're graduates. And in the series teachers apparently, I haven't quite gotten that deep into it.


	7. 1e7 Neither an End Nor a Beginning

Only a year late, so I'm totally on schedule! Kinda sorta. This one only took two HD crashes, a few psychotic breakdowns, and three or four final versions getting swirled into a semi-coherent mass.

For people that may not have noticed, I don't own Winx Club, and if I did, it would be 75% more gay.

… I'm looking at you Skye.

-o0o-

"You should release the seal immediately."

"She's only fifteen, she's not ready for that."

"If you don't do it now, our sister definitely won't make it to twenty."

"... Fine. All right. I pray our ancestors forgive me for this."

"Oh, those old farts were only concerned with keeping control long enough to drink themselves into a stupor."

"... You're such an ass some times."

"More often then not sis. You should try it, it's fun."

-o0o-

Stella smiled, looking across the lecture hall she had converted into a command center, focusing back on the two working at computer consoles in front of her. "You know, if this works, I'm going to make you both honorary witches." Fairies, Witches, and Specialists, all working for a common goal, each with operational skills that put them above the par, and perfect for her immediate need.

"If this works, I'm naming the next virus I write after you." the fuchsia haired Techna was on Stella's right, in her... admittedly silly fairy form. But the girl was clearly much more comfortable with what she was doing in that state, so the witch really had no problems with it. Techna was almost the little sister she actually wanted.

She did feel close to the android Techna, probably because the girl was infused with sunlight now to her core, and that light was still at least part of her birthright. It was even more of a boon when she turned out to be a technology fairy. Stella wanted her to help set up a command center almost immediately. The fact it let her force the robot girl to work along side the specialist who seemed to have a crush on her was just a side bonus.

The specialist Timmy was a genius with a stupid name. So she co-opted him to help with communications and tactical advising. In the three hours since had been given the position he had redirected their city based defensive line, giving them all an overall greater tactical advantage; networked the City of Magix's security and defense grids into the makeshift Alfea command center; and with Techna's help was currently in the process of reallocating a series of weather satellites into some kind of orbital solar weapon.

After this thing was over, he was so getting a promotion.

-o0o-

Bloom's problems could be traced back to the fact she didn't think very clearly unless there was violence already in progress. She'd day dream in class about magical places, full of wizards and witches, fairies and dragons. Sometimes, when she was younger, she'd see them in the corner of her vision on the streets, turning to only find nothing.

Which is probably why, upon seeing a blond girl being attacked by an ogre, her first instinct was to try to help her, rather then run screaming. Which, when thought about it, the running would have been way more rational over trying to kick out a monster's knees from behind.

It worked of course, the ogre dropped to it's knees long enough for her to slam her fists into the back of it's neck. It's just that, where she would have expected a human to drop after that, ogres seemed have really thick necks. It was still moving, but dizzily at least. And she didn't have the strength to over power someone it's size, and as it's attention was shifting to her she really couldn't count on the element of surprise cutting her a break a second time.

But then the girl it was attacking before fired a laser beam from her hand.

Yeah, that was pretty cool really.

-o0o-

"Oh god, my head..." Bloom put her hand to her forehead, trying to blink the sleep from her eyes. Why was she dreaming about the first day she met Stella though? It took a few more seconds to realize she was... sitting in a bonfire, warm embers brushing past her blurred vision as she sat up all the way. "The Fuck!"

"Hey, stop stealing my catchphrase." The red head turned her head to find her blond sister sitting alone on a log near the fire, canteen in her hand, blue open sky above, and the green forest around them. "Mirta said we should try it out. You weren't waking up at all after we got you into the medical wing. You know you kick in your sleep, right?"

Bloom shifted around in the bonfire, sticking her feet out into the dirt, somehow wearing her bunny patterned pajamas while the fire raged around her. The flames were licking and whipping over her body, yet seemed to tickle little more then anything else. "What happened?"

"You're going to have to fill me in on a chunk of it." Stella shifted around on the log, feet shuffling through the dirt, stopping to take a swig from the metal jug,"Why is the outdoors so dirty all the time? Never mind. The big boom in the basement happened as we expected. Musa got out okay on her own and met up with Diaspro's squad as was included in the plan. Darcy and Riven turned themselves into custody a few minutes after that. Darcy claimed she had brainwashed him, and Riven claims that he switched sides of his own free will, so that's a legislative nightmare for everybody at the moment. Without her demon back up, we eventually were able to subdue Stormy. Then you... umm... well... You brought Icy in to custody, and you've been asleep for the past three days. More or less."

"More or less being the part you're avoiding for some reason?" Stella choosing not to talk about something of her own free will? Something was off.

"I'm just skipping the part where you dragged Icy into your bed, were cuddling to her like a stuffed animal, and we couldn't get her out of your arms until sometime midday yesterday. But yeah, more or less."

"Oh... Well... That's not creepy in the least, right?"

"Clearly!" Stella smiled with forced enthusiasm, "So Mirta was worried that you burned yourself out in the tower, so she told me to sneak you out and see if you would do better after some exposure to raw fire. It worked with Icy and Darcy, so it seemed reasonable to try out the corollary." The blond shifted around on the log uncomfortably, "So, now I have to debrief you. How much do you remember?"

Bloom blinked. What did she remember? "Lets see... I remember Darcy was screwing with the light in the room. I remember Riven was attacking me from the darkness. He's actually really good too, so that wasn't fun at all. I remember Icy was chucking shit at me the whole time." the red head tilted her head to the side, a really dazed look on her face. "I was really, really scared for a moment. More then I've ever been in my life. Then all of a sudden it didn't matter. I just knew that I have the Dragonfire, I'm still a witch, and they couldn't do anything to me."

Stella blinked, then nodded, "Yeah, that sounds like Darcy's story too."

-o0o-

The fight was going well until Bloom went all psycho bitch. Darcy was just twisting darkness around, directing combat, keeping little Bloomy in the dark while her sister and her puppet attacked for her. Then Bloom seemed to flash with light for a moment, and just flipped out.

The fire which she had been using to keep Darcy's fog away seemed to die down, down in to her hands, some leaking from her eyes as she crouched. Riven didn't stand a chance, with his target suddenly becoming so low and dark, before suddenly shooting up, closing her flaming hands around his throat and lifting him off the ground in a single jerking motion.

"Darcy, you hear this! If you do not stop this, **immediately,** this man will die!" Bloom's right fingers closing around the specialist's neck, fire nipping at his skin as the red head lifted him off the ground, her left hand crushing his struggling right wrist. As the specialist struggled and gurgled, Bloom's magically enhanced strength holding him as he steadily choked, the silver weapon sliding from his fingers, clattering to the floor.

The darkness witch struggled with herself. He was just an enchanted minion, and as such was really quite disposable... but... but...

The shadow fog dropped, while Darcy held her hands up in surrender, "Fine, fine, you got me." Icy glared at her sister, giving up over a threat to someone else? She huffed in frustration, even as Bloom released the purple haired boy, dropping him to the floor.

"Take him to the city. They'll help him there." Bloom was focused entirely on Icy, disregarding Darcy and Riven. The other two were a minor threat at best, Riven was too wounded to fight effectively, and Darcy was an illusionist first and foremost. They could be dangerous, but only if their hearts were really in the fight. Bloom grinned, smiling up at Icy at the top of the stair case, "Well Snowcone, are you going to fight fair now?"

Icy put her finger to her chin, sucking on her lower lip for a moment, "No, I don't think I will."

-o0o-

Bloom shifted around, laying back in the open flame, picking up one of the still burning logs, focusing her fire through it, flash burning through the tinder, burning it down to charcoal, realising she was feeling a lot better since waking up earlier, "Okay, I remember some of that." She shivers, wincing to her self, "I also remember a bit of chasing Icy to the roof of the tower. That must have been when the explosion happened, because she passed out not to long after that.

"So then you brought her back to Alfea."

Bloom blushes, blood rushing to her face, "Not exactly. I was taking her back to my lair. Where her being Icy, would also have been considered less Icy 'evil witch' and more Icy 'my mate'."

"Nice, so you totally go for platinum blonds who make hobbies out of trying to kill you. I'm just making a note for future reference. It would explain that section in your diary about Mitzi really."

"Hey! It's not my fault... I'm not even sure what happened, so I'm going to be pleading insanity."

"You were going to die, you panicked, and your primal side took over. Mirta already explained most of it back at the school. Though now you have to do an essay about it." Stella shrugged with a sigh, "What can I say, Ms. Griff wants things back to normal, so everybody has reams of essays about it."

"Wait. A bunch of essays about me passing out?"

"No, your essay topic is 'Primal Berzerker Magic'. My essay topic is 'Cross Discipline Synergy', Mirta's got like six different topics about magical therapy... Hell, she even expects the Trix to complete their graduate thesis's, and they're stuck in Lighthaven for fuck knows how long."

"Um, Earthling, remember? Light where exactly?"

"Some hellish pocket dimension of sunshine, hugs, and other magicless torment. I think it was created by a deranged toddler godling or something. There's still arguments between the headmistresses and the government going on about why they should or shouldn't be sent anywhere else, but the council is a bit slow to act." Stella tilted her head as she thought, "Oh yeah, Riven went with them, but I think that's more Mirta trying to pair off people, then him being punished." Stella paused dramatically with a grin, "What can I say, she learned from the best."

-o0o-

Mirta sat down in the soft grass, in front the tree, sitting down her picnic basket, adjusting her straw hat and oversized sunshades. She was really growing to hate how much light was in this place. But she needed to be here. For the greater good really. Digging around in the basket, she pulled out another pair of large shades, offering it to the witch opposite of her, smiling as Stormy snatched the glasses from her hands, putting them on before sighing as some of the bright light was blocked from her eyes.

The emotions witch just smiled, tilting her head, "Now Stormy, while I feel that your reasons are valid, as your therapist, I feel that it would be both a sign of goodwill, as well as a good idea just to let Musa have her voice back."

It was process of elimination really. The Trix needed Techna's core to feeding the demon generators. Flora was cursed because she was annoyingly pure, especially to Darcy and Icy. Musa would have just been a normal casualty if one of the witches hadn't wanted her voice to herself.

Still, it was messy. But all of their hearts were open books to her. Most people's hearts actually. So it was only fair to help push others together, to make everyone happier.

Even if her own heart was confusing the hell out of her.

-o0o-

"She's what? They tried to take over the world, didn't they?" Bloom felt more then a little bit of surprise as she and the blond walked back through the forest. She felt almost good enough to fly. Almost, but that was better then before. If she was willing to admit it to herself, she might have been looking forward to her next chance to beat the ever loving crap out of Icy.

Stella just shrugged, "Well, Ms. Griff says it was just part of their graduate thesis at the tower. So it really looks like the bulk of their punishment is having to be at that horrible place. And then Farigonda pulled a few strings, and got Mirta assigned handle their rehabilitation. It's been a weird couple of days. I've got to warn you though. We're stuck with Icy's familiar. Where _'we're'_ is more specifically _'you'_."

"Oh, god damn it Stella." Bloom sighed, rubbing her forehead, before looking at her blond sister again, "Wait, you're not swearing, what's the deal?"

Stella just grinned softly, shaking her canteen before taking another swig, "Sweet, sweet brandy. During the victory celebration I just started drinking and haven't gotten around to stopping. I'm going to have the mother of all hangovers when I finally do run dry."


	8. epilogue

Double update!

… Okay, so it's not really. The last chapter felt like a horrible place to end, and this segment works better floating on it's own. What can I say, I type the most when I'm sick, so I don't make sense frequently. I wanted to do a lot with the epilogue, but then I remembered that this one is about Bloom. She's not the smartest main character, and she's quite a bit obtuse, but I've kinda grown to like her. When she's not being a barbie doll.

I might go on to year two immediately, or I might sit on it a bit. I want to give at least some attention and usefulness to the pixies, and the plot line I want to work with requires Darkar to actually make some kind of sense actually.

I still do not own Winx Club.

-o0o-

So Dad, I really would like to say that the last few weeks of school was adventurous and fun. I would, but really, it wasn't. It was tests. Tests and reports, and reports about tests.

Mirta was being run ragged, enough so that we set up a flipside mirror in our dorm room to cut her travel time between school and Lighthaven. Oh yeah, a flipside mirror is a kind of multi-spacial artifact that mimics the surface of a klein bottle where... Oh, never mind, it's a sort of teleportation thingie. Even with it she wasn't getting as much sleep as she should, so towards the end of finals week she was grumpy most of the time.

It took a few days after the battle, but the fairy Musa did get her voice back, though no one was willing to tell me about how it happened. She was also unwilling to talk to anyone about why she hated witches so much, but that's really her burden at the moment. She wanted to stay around Flora and Techna as much as she could, and they wanted to stay around us, so she's forcing herself not to say things, and we're trying not to say certain things around her. It's fairly stressful, but it's nothing compared to my first few weeks at Cloud Tower. And I'm sure she'll come around sooner or later.

Flora and Mirta seem to be working together on the Trix rehabilitation project, and I hate to admit it, but there are times when they're having conversations between themselves where I'm not even sure what language they're speaking. It seems rude to interrupt to ask questions, so I just let them chatter even though most of what they're talking about is going clear over my head. But that just seems to be part of the way they interact, probably because they're both med witches. Med fairies. Med specialists. Medical majors, that's the right word.

Stella seems to have taken Techna under her wing, which is really weird in a few ways, the least of which being the socially approved Witch-Fairy divide. I'm guessing she's reliving her childhood vicariously through the android as they both have mother issues, Stella having lost hers and I think Techna never had anything similar. Techna also seems to be surprised at some of the power changes she's developing, and Stella's more then glad to walk her through them. It's kinda sweet in a way.

Stella seems a bit strange now after the battle. She's still carefree on the surface, and once she sobered up she was quickly back to her mostly defensive, abrasive personality. She's very happy with both Brandon and Techna, and even with the extra responsibility she's been given by the headmasters, but it seems like she's waiting for something to happen that will ruin it all. It seems a bit paranoid, but it's like she's prepared to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Oh yeah, I apologized to Diaspro and Skye for the little misunderstanding a few months back, and they accepted it! It's so weird to not assume that a specialist is just going to flip out and attack me for the slightest infraction any more. Though I did promise to not do that spell on whim again, so that might have been part of it. And Diaspro at least admitted she understood where I was coming from, so that was pretty cool.

Let's see, I passed my all my Tower Classes, with special mention for being the only member of the first year class to work with Berzerker magic. DuFours gave me excellent marks for my fire display during her final. Umm... And Farigonda gave us each a metal for actions beyond the call of duty, but you probably already knew that. I'll leave that here with you and Mom when I go back for the next semester.

-o0o-

Bloom stood up from her kneeling position in front of the picture of her father, sitting the small gold and ribbon metal next to his picture. It had been an interesting year.

Where 12 months ago she didn't know why her mother kept talking to a picture like it could hear her, after a year in Magix, and she understood. It was possible. More then that even.

Anything was possible if you believed in it enough. It didn't have to make sense to anybody else.

And so the teenager in her star marked bellbottoms started down the staircase, shouting out, "Hey Mom, need any help down in the shop?"


End file.
